My Beauty Space : Product Reviews, Tips and Experiences

Anyone who has ever used MAC makeup knows that it has unparalleled quality and is actually a very good value for the money.  Sure, you do pay the higher department store prices for it.  But this is one of the cosmetics that is higher end that I believe makes a huge difference in how you look and how your makeup adheres to your face.  The new limited edition holiday eyeliners are one such example.  If you’ve ever read my blog before, you know I’m a fan of the MAC lip glosses because of their superior endurance and high shine.

MAC also has reeled me into being a devotee to their eyes collection now too, since I have tried one of their limited holiday edition eyeshadows that one of my good friends got me as a Christmas gift, and also two of the holiday limited edition eyeliners, the Pearlglide variety, in Molasses and Black Russian.  What makes them a holiday edition is the fact the they have these subtle little sparkles in them that lend themselves to a more festive look, although it’s not in your face and not tacky.

The eyeshadows that they put out around Christmas time also tend to have extra sparkles and shimmers in them, so they’re perfect for those festive holiday parties that your office might hold, and any of those family and friends parties as well.  The Pearlglide eyeliners that I bought were in brown and black colors, although the black is not a super intense, deep black, which I like because I can still get away with wearing it during the day as well.

It’s called “Pearlglide”, and boy does it hold up to it’s name.  Not only is it shimmery like a pearl, but it glides on easier than most other eyeliners I’ve ever tried.  It does smudge a bit, but the color is long lasting and remains very stay put and dramatic looking for hours after you apply it.  I wouldn’t say it’s totally smudge proof though, but as far as a lasting effect, it gets a definite “A”.

The colors of course are rich and dramatic, as with most other MAC brand cosmetics, which is one of their signatures.  The brown is perfect for a thin or thick line, for day and night looks, and it’s got that earthy look for those that don’t like blacks, blue and purples, and the black russian color is perfect for the smokey eye look or just as a more dramatic statment during the day, or if you want to wear a “power suit” and draw some attention to your eyes.

I would recommend the Pearlglide eyeliners by MAC to anyone who loves good, quality, easy to use and apply makeup. 

It’s the holidays again, and that means lots of holiday parties where you have the opportunity to glam up your makeup choices a bit without feeling like you’re overdoing it.  You also get to pile on a little more sparkly jewelry than usual without feeling like you’ve been “blinged” out as lots of women normally would if they have too many pieces of jewelry on or if they’ve chosen brighter, more sparkly pieces than they usually would. 

As far as your eyes go, the holidays are the time to get a little more dramatic and a little more bold with your color choices if it’s something you’re comfortable with.  Heck, even if it’s a little out of your comfort zone, go for it anyways, you never know when a little experimentation will lead to a new favorite color of a new favorite application technique. 

What kinds of colors can you expect to see in your local Sephoras and drugstore makeup sections?  Well, there seems to be a lot of greens showing up on shelves near me.  Greens are a great color choice, because depending on your coloring, you can choose earthier tones to make a more understated statement, or you can go with a bit brighter of a color of green, but you have to be careful with this because this may only look good on the cooler skin tones.

I’ve seen a lot of bold golds too.  Golds are usually only good for women who have warmer skin tones, so I would avoid golds, if like me, you are fair skinned and have a cooler skin tone.  However, if you really must try it and are cooler toned, then look for a light gold, and one with some hints of white or silver in it to offset the glittery gold color. 

Purples are a fun and festive option too.  Sure, they’re not really your traditional holiday color, but they can be festive when paired with the right accessories and outfit, and you can wear purples whether you have cooler skin tones, or warmer, because purples come in so many different shades that are suitable for both.  You can also choose to pair it with a dark brown eyeliner or a black one, but I choose a lighter charcoal hinted black because you don’t want to overly state the eyeliner when pairing with purples - at least that’s my opinion, so that the purple stands out a bit more.

I’m a huge fan of brown eyeliner. In fact, that’s what I usually use most every day for work, because it’s more subtle and less “severe”. Black is usually reserved for nights out on the town (which by the way I rarely seem to do any more!), or when I’m going for a more dramatic effect for an event of some sort that I know there will be low lighting at. However, I do make one exception for wearing black eyeliner or a coal color during the day, and that is if I’m going to mix up some blues or purples for my eyeshadow.

I know I reviewed the new Cover Girl Lash Blast Mascara just a few weeks ago, but i wanted to follow up on a comparison review of this new mascara against my all time favorite and regular mascara that I’ve been using for over ten years, L’Oreal Lash Out.  The two really don’t compare in my opinion when it comes to coverage and drama.

Lash Blast, which I agree has a great brush design, just doesn’t seem to deliver enough of the actual mascara to my lashes, leaving them puny looking, while L’oreal Lash Out delivers plenty of mascara and also helps to separate the lashes and lengthen them with it’s special teddy bear brush.  I think it’s the consistency of the mascara itself in L’Oreal’s mascara though that makes it a superior product in the end, because if you put the same mascara in the Cover Girl bottle, you may get the same results, unless I am wrong and the brush design really just stinks for Cover Girl’s Lash Blast.

L’Oreal Lash Out is my staple because even with no other eye makeup on, it works so well that it helpst to define the eyes by fattening the lashes emphatically and drawing the eye to this area of the face. 

I decided to talk about a few hygiene tools that could be viewed as purely necessary by some, but that I not only view as a hygiene necessity, but also as a beauty necessity since they serve a double purpose. The first is a nose hair trimmer.

This is a note to all the ladies who love eyeliner and use it pretty much everyday, except on the weekends like myself. I buy the kind of eyeliner that you have to sharpen with an eyeliner sharpener (that resember a pencil sharpener). I like my eyeliner in pencil form because I have more control over how sharp I can get the tip, and that means that I get a more precise tip so I can daw a more precise, and thinner line if I want to, underneath my eyes, which is where I use eyeliner to begin with.

I finally broke down and bought an eye makeup remover.  Don’t know why I’ve always been so averse to actually using the stuff, but I found some Neutrogena makeup remover at a local CVS and figured I’d start using it on my eyes to remove those stubborn bits of eyeliner that seem to stay around your eyes even after you wash your entire face. I must say, it’s nice to have a completely makeup free face after washing it before I go to bed!

The Neutrogena oil free eye makeup remover is a good product, like many other products made my Neutrogena, although I’d never recommend most of their makeup line since I’ve personally tried some of it and had no luck at all.  It’s a clear liquid that comes in an almost 4 oz. container and is priced around 6 bucks.  At the rate I’ve been using it, it’ll last me forever, so I’m not really concerned about buying this adding to my makeup budget at all.

It takes the eye makeup right off, including mascara and eyeliner, which are my biggest worries since you don’t want this stuff on your eye area after you’ve washed it, irritating the eyes.  I never realized how much eyeliner I had leftover on my eyes after washing my face until I used this stuff.

I use it by dipping a q-tip in the liquid and gently gliding the q-tip under my eyes, and over my lashes if there is any mascara leftover, and the cotton always comes out with brown stuff on it, more than what I thought it would too, so that means it works.  It really has no smell, like many other Neutrogena products, and it didn’t burn my eyes when it got in them, although it made them feel “oily”, but that was quickly remedied when I blinked a few times.  Good stuff!   

So I just got two new L’Oreal HIP (High Intensity Pigment) eyeshadows.  High intensity pigment is just another word for super charged with intense, super saturated color.  It means that it is of a higher quality than the less expensive, normally pigmented makeups that have color that is not as deep or intense, and also happens to not last as long as deeply pigmented cosmetics. 

Often times what you are paying more for is the pigment in a given makeup, say lipstick or eyeshadow or any other makeup that relies on color of some sort to give it character. 

As an over the counter, cheaper brand of makeup, L’Oreal definitely wins my vote hands down for superiority over the other brands, and I’d have to say that Revlon is a close second.  I’ve never been a fan of Maybelline or Cover Girl, because I feel their makeup wears off too quickly and tends to contain irritating additives.  At least for my skin, maybe not for everyone else’s. 

I bought two new L’Oreal HIP eyeshadow duos, one in a rich forest green coupled with a deep suede color, and another a deep but brighter blue (almost a turquoise tint to it), paired with a deep cocoa brown, almost a mix between a grey charcoal and brown rather than a warm brown with red tones, if you can picture what I’m talking about. 

I aboslutely LOVE both of them.  The blue and suede pairing is perfect for when I want to add a bit of drama and focus to the eyes, and the green is intense without being obnoxious, and very earthy looking and bohemian, so it goes well with a lot of my earthier colored, light summer clothes because it pairs well with natural looks and muted makeup. 

The color is super saturated, and deeply colors the eyes from the first brush stroke, so much that you have to really focus on not putting too much on your makeup brush when applying it so you don’t get too much on the eyes and end up with a smudge of darkness in one area. 

Not only does it look fantastic, it really does last noticeably longer than regular eyeshadow does, and it looks ten times richer, more “expensive” on your eyes.  The cost is a bit higher, but nothing I’d say is cost prohibitive at all.  Because you need so little, the length of time it lasts over regular eyeshadow probably pays for itself anyways. 

It seems that Jane, the cheaper cosmetic line that is geared more toward teens and tweens who have little discretionary cash to spend on cosmetics, has a newer gel bronzer out that actually might make a good addition to your repertoire of bronzers and shimmery-types of makeup that help add that extra summer glow to your skin during the summer months.  I looked at  the consistency of the stuff, and much like the Bonne Bell gel bronzer, it has a gel like substance, is not too thick, and would easily blend in with your liquid foundation.

I have the Bonne Bell stuff, and I like to blend it right in with my foundation so that it adds a little bit of color to my whole face, but you can also take a tiny bit of this strong stuff (a little goes a long way), and dab it on the areas of your face that naturally get more sun such as your nose, the middle of the forehead and the cheeks and chin, and voila, you have a nice, natural summer look.  Just be sure not to over do it on this stuff, of you could have that clown makeup effect, and that’s definitely not what we’re going for.

The price is right on the Jane Summer Glow gel also - at 5.99 for a generous and ample size tube, you will see that this small tube will last you a long time.  My Bonne Bell bronzer gel has lasted me two years.  I probably should have bought new by now, but heck, it hasn’t gone bad and it still has it’s pigment, it works, and it hasn’t irritated my skin, so I’ve kept it. 

My preference is to blend it though with my foundation, because when I have tried to apply it over my foundation, I found it was sort of hard to blend in naturally, whereas if I just put a dab on my makeup pad with my Revlon Skinlights and my normal foundation, it blends in nicely, and becomes a part of my mixture, making it give a little more color, dew, and glow to the skin.  It also has a bit of an anti aging effect, because it tends to help bring out a fresher, newer look to the skin and that youthful vibrance that only youth itself can bring - and a little creative makeup! 

Well, on another trip to the local drugstore, I was looking for some new neutrally colored eyeshadow to add to my now defunct brown eyeshadow collection.  One of my favorite quads of brown shades had fallen to the ground and was completely crumbled, so it was rendered useless.  Also, the other numerous brown shades of eyeshadow I had didn’t seem to compare to the old one, as they had too many yellow and orange hues in them, which for my skin tone looks terrible.

So, I was looking for a similar quad of muted browns with mostly rich undertones, avoiding the yellowish and orangish tones.  The closest I came after looking at Revlon, L’Oreal and even Cover Girl, which is usually a drugstore brand I stay away from, I settled on a quad by Maybelline ExpertWear eye shadow, called Enchanted Forest. 

It’s called Enchanted Forest because it consists of three varying shades of rich brown and tan as well as a nude color for the lid, and then a nice, neutral green khaki color that I thought would go nicely with my paler skin tone and brown eyes.  It even had each color labled as to where it went on the eyes, so that you could coordinate like the “experts” do, and have an expertly done eye.

The green color went on the crease, the darker brown color (which I love, but have to use sparingly because it is very dark), goes on the Outer corner of the eye, and the medium nude shade goes on the lid, with the very light tan/nude going on the brow bone to finish the look off and create a highlighted look the the eyes, making them look bigger and brighter.

Overall, I have to say, although the colors are stay put totally all day like some of their more expensive and heavily pigmented counterparts, the colors are great, and very complementary to someone with a lighter skin tone and brown eyes.  For seven bucks, the quad is a genuine bargain, and sure to last at least a few months since so little of every color is used.  It is now my new standby until I find something better, since it coordinates with everything.